1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a garment securing device, and particularly, to a magnetic securing device assembly adapted to hold a garment in place over the breasts while a mother nurses an infant in an efficient and convenient manner.
2. Background Art
Historically, nursing an infant was somewhat awkward and challenging for a woman depending upon her motivation, experience, support system—including, environment and constitution, both temperamentally and physically for her and for her infant. For breast feeding to be effective for a motivated mother, various components are necessary, such as for example, a supportive environment from the hospital to the workplace, the infants' effective ability to “latch-on” and to suckle, and the comfort of skin-to-skin contact experienced by the mother and infant.
With respect to an individual mother's goals, the World Health Organization (WHO), and supported by the Center for Disease Control (i), recommends sustained and exclusive (of other nutritional supplements, i.e., formulas and the like) use of breast milk as the sole source of a child's nutrition for as long as possible. The Surgeon General's goal in 2008 was 75 percent of all infants born in the USA breast fed at birth, and 50 percent at six months, and 25 percent at twelve months. Nationwide, as per a 2008 survey by the CDC and the National Immunization Survey, 35 percent of infants breast fed at 3 months were breast fed exclusively and just 12 percent of the 43 percent, breast fed overall, at 6 months.
In more detail, the WHO, the CDC, and Uniceff have all recommended breast milk as the exclusive source of nutrition through the first six months of life, at the minimum. The existence and production of breast milk, as well as the quantity or supply available, is dependent upon how often the mother nurses each day, and/or expresses milk through some other means, usually by pumping her breasts.
Statistics available through “2009 Breast Feeding Report CardUSA,” and as profiled in “Healthy People 2010,” and the “CDC and National Immunization Survey” track the percentage of mothers, by state, who breast feed through the first year of life. From these statistics, it is easy to deduce that sustained lactation is difficult to attain as nursing mothers return to their jobs earlier and earlier. Today, in our society, the working mother is returning back to work in as early as 6 to 8 weeks, as opposed to 3 to 6 months which would be more ideal for breast feeding an infant.
According to the CDC Immunization Survey 2003 to 2006, only 36 percent of women nationwide breast fed exclusively through 3 months post birth, decreasing to 10 percent through the first 6 months of life. These figures are well below goals defined by multiple health organizations, suggesting, breast feeding has significant challenges. Likewise, the Bureau of Labor Statistics records showed in 2005, one-quarter of all women in the labor force had children under the age of 3 years. Various other well known reports identified over 50 percent of those women, with a child (or children) under the age of 3 years, further identified that the child (or children) was under the age of one year old.
It still remains to be determined, what number of those women with child(ren) under the age of one year were still lactating. Twenty-seven percent of those mothers with children under the age of one year further had three or more children under the age of 18 years old in 2005. It is well known that regardless of planning, the commitment to provide breast milk is a difficult goal to achieve. As a consequence of our fast paced society, the vast majority or working mothers are forced to go back to work at the end of their short maternity leave period. Consequently, the returning mother is assuredly fatigued. Her work responsibilities and her home responsibilities compete for her energy and focus.
Factors key to sustained breast feeding are the quantity of breast milk made available and the accessibility thereof. That is, a mother must nurse and/or pump frequently to produce increasing volumes of milk, as well as to maintain her supply. Good nutrition, adequate hydration and rest also add to her challenges, creating a daunting task for mothers in our rigorous society.
A plethora of other challenges are poised with respect to breast feeding, such as handling of the infant and her breast simultaneously where one hand is used to nurse from one breast, whereas the other hand/arm are used to support her infant's body. With one hand she must shift her over garment to expose her breast (i.e., the nipple area at minimal), while holding back her clothing from the nursing area so as not to distract her infant or limit her view of the suckling infant. Ideally, it would be useful to be able to lift the fabric up and away from the “latch-on” site so that the hand not being used to support her child's body is free to sooth and watch over the infant's safe latch on. Unfortunately, it is difficult to keep breast tissue away from obstructing the infant's nostrils, and its breathing are frequently blocked during the nursing process. These issues cause disruption to the “latch-on” process by the infant, which frequently leads to the loss of precious breast milk during the initial “let down” (rapid flow) interval of nursing. Unfortunately, clothing contamination by the breast milk (such as soiling) is also prevalent. As a result, the mother's concentration, focus and relaxation are severely handicapped.
Numerous creative solutions have been employed to facilitate the mother's choice to breast feed, from providing upper garments with access panel openings, special snaps and/or button on the apparel, employing draping poncho-like cover-ups, to bras with removable flaps conducive for providing access to the breast. However, none of these commercially available products have successfully solved the issue of preventing a garment from falling back down over the breast as the infant attempts to nurse, and/or to free up a mother's hand to ease the use of a breast pump device. The problem with these draping ponchos is that once the garment has been pulled down over the breast feeding baby's head, the mother cannot be certain that the shirt, bra and/or other fabrics under the drape are not interfering with the suckling process and/or obstructing the nose and thus breathing of the infant. Consequently, breast feeding women are forced to opt for less desirable “attire” that is believed to be conducive to breast feeding, yet, on the contrary, are so often inappropriate in the work place.
There is a need for a garment securing device that can be conveniently worn at home and in the work place that provides consistent easy access, and availability at hand when it is time to nurse an infant. This is because the frequency required for feeding a newborn baby, dependent on it's size, can be as often as every 2 hours, around the clock, and as many as up to 8 to 12 feedings in a 24 hour time frame.
Just after the birth, during the early days of breastfeeding, a mother being able to maneuver her clothing away from the nipple latch-on area is vital to her success in breast feeding. The latch-on phase can be quite awkward and often complicated by various factors, such as by an engorged breast, inverted nipples, a frustrated infant having a receding jaw making latch-on an anatomical challenge, which is not uncommon in newborns. It is commonly understood that any apparatus or process that eases any part of the breast feeding process is a welcome and necessary benefit.
Choices for clothing has long been challenging for a new mother re-entering the workplace from maternity leave. A nursing mother's wardrobe is drastically limited, as her pre-pregnant attire is not currently available and likely stored away for later use. Unfortunately, nursing appropriate garments are not generally work appropriate and are uncomfortable for a nursing mother to be wearing in a professional environment. The returning mother oftentimes has to purchase expensive and limited specially made article of clothing designed to facilitate the nursing process as well as to promote a professional image.
Nursing mother's have long felt a need for a product capable of holding their garments in place during nursing. Sadly, there is currently no adornment in the marketplace capable of lifting and safely securing a wide variety of clothing styles, fabrics and weights. Regrettably, conventional fasteners cause wrinkles, marks, and/or oftentimes snag and tear fabrics. There is no product presently available capable of positioning a clothing garment as well as to securing it so that both of the mother's hands are free to align and attach the breast pump apparatus of her choice onto both her breasts simultaneously in an efficient manner.
Where nursing an infant is involved, safety is a major concern especially where the child may come into close contact with a particular product and may not be overlooked. Choking, strangulation, and other hazards inherent in various materials potentially available for production are also a large consideration in the development, manufacture and packaging of a suitable product. The product should adhere to various safety standards, such as guidelines set forth by the Consumer Products Safety Act, and the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, which are geared to focus on manufacturers of goods for primarily prenatal to pre-school aged children.
Additional challenges for the nursing mother arise upon her return to the work place; often only 6-8 weeks after giving birth. Here motivation is to her child. The mother of a newborn is often fatigued, and distracted from her child by her job related responsibilities and restrictions. Being separated from her child for extended periods of time causes sufficient frustration and anxiety. Most likely, this is the first separation from the newborn since conception. Compounding the anxiety is the drastic change, regardless of how highly anticipated the expected mother may have felt prepared. To make matters worse, once the working mother returns to work, expressing milk (e.g., by pumping) must be performed frequently in an 8 to 10 hour work day, in considerably less desirable, public environments. Unfortunately, expression is performed in a routine manner as dictated and regulated by the rigors of her workplace, not by her natural biological expression.
The set up, use, and maintenance of the breast pump apparatus, and milk storage are all obstacles for the working mother. These and other “glitches” previously noted are compounded by her personal needs for good nutrition, adequate hydration, satisfying her employer's expectations and the demands of her job description. Ideally, in these less private, awkward environments, the belabored mother would like to be able to very quickly draw her milk in a more efficient and relaxed manner. However, too few employers have the capital to set up lactation rooms where a nursing mother can go to and draw their beast milk by pumping. Even where one might be available, there is the added burden of finding a suitable place to inconspicuously refrigerate the breast milk throughout the day in order to prevent the milk from spoiling. Breast pump manufacturers have attempted to provide adequate equipment; some equipment even containing refrigeration components with the pump to safely store the breast milk. A number of women bring their own coolers in to work with them into which the milk may be stored. As described herein, there is an inordinate amount of equipment (e.g., the breast pump, the cooler, and possibly breast pads to safeguard garments from leakage, her lunch and/or additional fluid nourishment for herself) that the nursing mother must contend with every day. Breast pumps are time consuming and require substantial set up and cleaning, as well as the use of both hands during operation.
In the first three months after the birth of her baby frequent routine nursing and/or pumping is imperative to produce, increase, and maintain her milk supply. In the work place, time spent expressing milk from one's breast is deemed “personal use of company time.” Consequently, restful and social break times are all too often forfeited by a mother needing instead to pump. Adding to this challenge, not all work environments are “family friendly,” clean, private or comfortable places for the mother to express her breast milk. The mother's immediate motivation, her child's presence and cry, is of course, absent. Thus, experiencing separation anxiety, guilt, even grief is justifiably experienced by the mother returning to work.
Appropriate clothing, yet another burden to contend to, for a “nursing mother,” may not be “work appropriate” attire and is fairly expense. The removal, adjustment of some clothing and the safeguarding of those garments, is a time consuming process and a detrimental point of consideration for a nursing mother. A device that can provide more efficient management of her clothing while nursing and/or pumping is highly desirable. The desired solution should free the user's hands, and meet with a mother's goal, to enhance, ease, and sustain her choice to breast feed, as well as to meet the mechanical and emotional needs of the mother, and her child. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the various challenges, it is all too easy for a women to give in to the pressures of all of the aforesaid obstacles and abandon her quest for producing breast milk, thereby resorting to a more convenient artificial formula substitute.
A mother's breast milk is the best nutrition for the infant because the breast milk provides an optimal mix of nutrients and antibodies naturally designed for the infant. It has been proven that breast fed babies have fewer and less serious illnesses overall. For example, the risk of occurrence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), childhood cancer and obesity are dramatically reduced (as per WHO and Uniceff). Furthermore, not only is the production of breast milk nourishing for the child, but it is also healthy for the mother to produce.
During the period of breast feeding, a mother is assured with confidence that the child is receiving the best nutritional value during this time of rapid growth and development. Various other advantageous can be realized through breast feeding. As a result of the breast milk production, it is proven that the uterus or womb contracts returning to its pre-pregnancy state. Continued breast feeding also assists in the weight loss of the new mother, in addition to decreasing the risks of breast and ovarian cancer, as well as anemia and osteoporosis, and Type-2 diabetes. Another benefit to nursing is that both mother and baby enjoy each others emotional benefit and establish a special and close relationship.
Financial incentives realized through breast feeding are significant and all too often lost as a result of the difficulties involved with breast feeding. To their detriment, a significant financial burden is placed on the family. Less money is available for other essential goods and services. Heath costs are increased, and time away from the labor force to care for sick children is increased where the attempt to breast feed is not made. Various negative implications extend to the community and are further frustrated by the lack in breast feeding. That is, more tax resources are relied upon to care for an unhealthy infant in our society, thereby raising costs for health care, government assistance, and to third party payers.
In our current health care climate, the length of time a patient is allowed to occupy a hospital bed has decreased drastically and will continue to do so as hospitals, insurance companies, and Medicare attempts to reduce costs. Each day an increasing number of patients are untimely discharged from hospitals and “same day” outpatient surgical suites within hours of their critical procedures. Regardless of the length of the shortened “in house” stay, patients are discharged early and left to contend with various post surgery implements with minimal instructions for care. Patents are diverse and may range from a post cesarean section mother, to a middle aged man with a colostomy appliance. Unfortunately, assistance from alternate support services as provided by home care agencies, the Visiting Nurse Association, and family involvement may be limited, and not likely available 24 hours a day. Patients, in a semi-coherent, stressed and weakened state, are expected to learn quickly to fend for themselves, and to resort to their own resources for care-giving in between scheduled visits. Regrettably, patients have to return to their jobs earlier than prescribed for fear that they may lose their job, as well as the need to maintain their income and heath insurance among a host of other personal concerns.
It is clear that these problems have not been solved and there is still a longstanding need for a device that can aid in overcoming the disadvantages listed above by enabling a mother to prolong breast feeding. The challenges and expectations of motherhood can threaten a woman's self esteem, sense of empowerment, and confidence. Her new role as caregiver for an infant can leave her feeling inadequate, overwhelmed with responsibility, humbled, and vulnerable.
Unfortunately, there are so few products on the market that encourage a mother to prolong breast feed during the first year of life, i.e., a vulnerable and rapid growth period. As mentioned above, it is unanimously proven that a number of health benefits are received by a child who is able to breast feed for a prolonged period of time during the infancy period of a newborns life. A “newborn” may commonly be referred to from birth to 6 months of age, and an infant and be referred to from about birth to 1 year.
The magnetic securing device assembly described below is a unique device that allows a nursing mother to conveniently prolong the duration of nursing by breast feeding from weeks to months, to years, and solves a fundamentally longstanding need not previously addressed in child rearing.